SNAP Wisconsin Statement on the Arrest in Milwaukee
of Fr. Donald Buzanowski

Removed from ministry and allowed to live undetected for over a
decade and work with youth as a counselor for Milwaukee County agencies,
multiple child molester Donald Buzanowski was arrested in Milwaukee
yesterday and is being arraigned on two counts of first degree child
sexual assault today in Brown County. Buzanowski resided as a priest
both in the diocese of Green Bay and Milwaukee.

All citizens owe a debt of gratitude to the courageous victim who
came forward in this case. We urge, as always, all victims of clergy
sexual crimes to report their abuse to civil authorities. Only when
law enforcement takes clergy crimes against children seriously and
act aggressively can the public have some assurance that children
in the community are safe from sexual predators like Fr. Buzanowski.

Buzanowski was convicted and released from federal prison for possession
of child pornography in 2002. The priest also admitted in a letter
obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to having abused at least
14 minors while a priest for the Diocese of Green Bay (see "Abusive
Priest Evades Justice," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 22,
2003).

Since his release from Federal prison in 2002 and taking residence
in Milwaukee, we are alarmed that neither Archbishop Dolan of Milwaukee
or Bishop Zubik of Green Bay have notified the community of Fr.
Buzanowski history or urged other victims of the priest to come
forward to law enforcement. Fr. Buzanowski did not appear on the
list of known sex offenders released this summer by Archbishop Dolan,
illustrating yet again the dangerously inadequate and incomplete
nature of this list.

A civil case against the Diocese of Green Bay filed last year claims
that church officials deliberately interfered with the reporting
of the case now under prosecution (see Associated Press story, "Appeals
Court Revives Lawsuit Against Green Bay Diocese," August 3,
2004).